How do you become a good writer? Should imitate the greats? How does a unique voice emerge?

Embracing suckage. Your first draft will always
suck. We need a museum of first drafts. Show me Shakespeare's first
draft! Show me David Foster Wallace's first draft! Show me Steve Jobs'
first business plan! [MP3 clip of just this part.]

Philosophies of self-improvement: is Merlin Mann right that we need fewer cheesy tips?

Episode #3 of Think Different TV features Ben Casnocha and Josh Kaufman in conversation for 40 minutes about books, self-education, the process of reading, ambition, and other topics. Below is the embedded
version. I recommend watching it on the Vimeo site and letting it load all the way. Then you can use the chapter markings on that page.
Below the embed are the topics discussed. Here's an MP3 audio file of the episode.

1:13 Josh says he's reading personal development books since it's the beginning of the year and you want to start the year off right

2:14 Steve Pavlina? He promotes 30 day experiments - just test something and see how you like it

6:20 It's important to have at least one experimental side project going at all times

6:49 Ambition - what is it, how has the word evolved

8:48 When ambition is nakedly about power and money, it can be unattractive

10:40
There are people who are trying to do big things where the motivation
is wanting to make the world better or just craftsmanship -- wanting to
do something for the joy of doing it, have the ability to exercise
skill.

12:40 How we choose what books to read

16:28 The role of books in the self-education process

18:00 Searching Amazon and Google for the best books

18:34 Are customer reviews on Amazon reliable?

20:54 The process of reading a book - start to finish or cherry pick sections?

22:18 Take a few minutes before reading a book to think about what you want to get out of it. Selective attention.

26:50 Read until you've gotten the key points and could re-hash them to others

28:00 Recording / summarizing important nuggets from a book

30:00 Looking for mental models: concepts that have broad explanatory power

31:08 The value of book summaries / outlines that are sold?

33:00 If you're a business person, what % of books you read should be in the business book genre?

35:55 Study how people work (psychology, communication, history) and systems / processes.

37:00 Reading about science can help you understand systems / processes (ie, friction)

Episode #2 of Think Different TV features Ben Casnocha and Ramit Sethi in conversation for 40 minutes on personal finance, the media, mentors, writing good emails, and building relationships. Below is the embedded version. I recommend watching it on the Vimeo site and letting it load all the way. Then you can use the chapter markings on that page.
Below the embed are the topics discussed. Here's an MP3 audio file of the episode.

0:59 Ramit explains what he's telling his readers about personal finance in these tumultuous times5:00 Has the media done a good job explaining the crisis?8:00 Ben says he admires those who have conceded the complexity of the situation8:50 Ben says most young people he talks to don't really care what's going on in D.C. re: finance industry9:08
Ben says if you're going to be an engaged citizen, you should follow
what's going on even if it doesn't affect your own situation11:16 Ramit says ignore macro-economics and focus on what you can control13:10
Ben says if you take "only focus on things you control" to its logical
end, people shouldn't focus on anything going on in Washington.15:38 Ramit talks about his scholarship17:48 Ramit says doing things that can scale -- and reach a large audience -- is most fun19:53 What are the keys to a successful outreach to get 15 mins of a busy person's time?21:24 Ramit says personalize the outreach23:50 Ben says asking good questions is key and the key to a good question is specificity24:38
Ben cites Geoffrey Moore's strategy to dominating niches and leveraging
success as analogous to escalating communications in a relationship25:35
Ramit asks Ben what the best way to get 15 minutes of Ben's time is -
Ben says he's biased toward people who do their background research27:10 Ramit: "Build a portfolio of work online that you can point people to"28:59 Ben confesses that he judges people based on appropriate apostrophe usage in "its" and "it's"29:54 Ramit talks about the "lamest, most ridiculous" emails he gets31:10
Ben says in early days of a relationship your communications need a
clear call to action, but eventually you should be able to say
something and have the person react32:32 Ramit says his use of "eom" in the subject line reflects the intimate nature of his relationship with Ben33:27
Ben riffs on mentors: don't ask explicitly for someone to be a mentor,
and it takes time. Relationships have a natural pace to them.37:00 Ramit says ask your mentor good questions38:31 Ben says also try to add value and bring up those topics for which there is no expert.

Episode #1 of Think Different TV features Ben Casnocha and Cal Newport in conversation for 30 minutes. Below is the embedded version. I recommend watching it on the Vimeo site and letting it load all the way. Then you can use the chapter markings on that page.

0:54 - Cal tells us what his third book is about
3:33 - Ben says people confuse "mysterious" with "impressive"
7:49 - Difference between being an impressive person vs. an interesting person
15:10 - Cal talks about the "confounding effect" that distorts our sense of interestingness since we don't understand how something is done
16:37 - Attributing someone else's success to "magic" relieves yourself of responsibility / guilt?
20:46 - What's the difference between school and the "real world"? What skill sets are transferable?
27:26 - To succeed as as student requires some degree of entrepreneurship/innovation